SCHOOL TOURS

Palm Springs Art Museum is a center for the enjoyment, discovery, and exploration of the visual and performing arts. We are dedicated to the enrichment of the entire community through expanding collections, dynamic exhibitions, and diverse programs.

Palm Springs Art Museum offers a variety of meaningful experiences in an open, friendly learning environment. Museum docents provide lively interactive tours geared to specific age levels and curricula. Tours are designed to expand students understanding of art and allow them to experience it using their own powers of imagination and observation.

All student school tours are free and require advance reservation.

Reservations: 760-322-4852 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

General Tours:These tours are 50 minutes long and include visits to changing exhibitions and permanent collection art galleries. Please see Current Exhibitions and Permanent Collection for a full description of these areas.

This is a 2-hour experience in the museum's galleries and art studios which offers students the opportunity to investigate works of art on their own terms. Explorations of meaning, technique, and personal expression take place during conversations about the works in the galleries with specially trained docents and during creative sessions in the studios with experienced art instructors.

We receive many requests and the number we can accommodate is limited, so please make your reservation early.

This is a 2-hour experience in the museum's galleries and art studios. Teen Docents will lead your students in the museum collections to explore meaning, technique and personal expressions. In the art studios, students will create their own art piece. This tour is available from October to December.

Themed Tours:Teachers may select an emphasis for their tours from Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Native American Art, American Art, and Western Expansion for these 50-minute tours.

Self-Guided Tours: (High school and College)School groups of one class with one teacher and another adult may reserve a self-guided tour. Reservations must be made with the Education Department so that docent-led tours are not disrupted. Please remember that groups led by museum docents always have priority in the galleries.

Writing in the Museum: (High School Only)Writing in the Museum provides a tour of specific artworks that students explore with their specially trained docent/facilitator. Using directed questions to encourage visual literacy and moving through three modes of writing (descriptive, reflective, and analytical); students are given the opportunity to express themselves in words about the art and their responses to it.

General Tours: (Middle and High School)Please note: This tour is limited to 30 students only.

These tours are 50 minutes long and include the current exhibition in the Galen and the Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden. Please see Current Exhibitions for a full description.

Eyes On / Hands On: (Grades K-6 only)(Funded in part by Sherman Fairchild)

This is a 2-hour experience in the Galen and Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden that offers students the opportunity to investigate works of art on their own terms. Explorations of meaning, technique, and personal expression take place during conversations about the works at the museum with specially trained docents and during a creative session in the studio with an experienced art instructor.

We receive many requests and the number we can accommodate is limited, so please make your reservation early.

Self-Guided Tours: (High school and College)School groups of one class with one teacher and another adult may reserve a self-guided tour. Reservations must be made with the Education Department so that docent-led tours are not disrupted. Please remember that groups led by museum docents always have priority in the galleries.

PROCEDURE FOR SCHOOL TOURS

When scheduling your visit, please alert us to any special needs, including limited English or physical or learning disabilities, that we can prepare appropriately.

Tour Goals:THE MUSEUM IS A PLACE OF DISCOVERY! Tours are planned to enhance the students' experiences as well as to stimulate new ways of thinking. We hope to encourage each student to consider new ideas as well as offer new things to see.

Length of Tour:Each group is given a 50-minute gallery tour unless otherwise noted. When the tour is completed, we request that the group depart the museum, unless prior arrangements have been made.

Reserve:Tours are given by prior reservation and must be reserved at least two weeks in advance.

Arrival: The buses will park in front of the museum and the Docents will greet you and help divide your class(es) into groups of approximately 10-12. Please notify the museum as soon as possible if your group will be late or needs to cancel. If your group arrives 20 minutes late without notification, a guided tour is not guaranteed.

Docents: Docents are dedicated volunteers who have undergone extensive and continuing training to guide groups of all ages through the museum. When making your reservation, be sure to mention any particular focus you would like. Docents are eager to tailor your students' tour so they may have the best experience possible.

Teacher's Role: Please bring at least one adult chaperone for each group of 15. If more adults want to accompany the tour they will have to pay admission price. Accompanying adults should understand that they are responsible for the conduct of the students. Chaperones should stay with their group at all times and supervise the students in their group. Chaperones should not bring other children in strollers or otherwise; they need to stay focused on the students in their group.

Prepare:Please have each student wear a nametag. This will enable the Docent to have more interaction with the students.

We look forward to working with you and welcome your suggestions for improving future programs.

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Palm Springs Art Museum is the largest cultural institution in the Coachella Valley and includes three locations in Palm Springs and Palm Desert. The flagship building is located in downtown Palm Springs and features compelling art exhibitions, a vast permanent collection, and the 433-seat Annenberg Theater, all in a 150,000 square foot, architecturally-significant building. Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center, Edwards Harris Pavilion features exhibitions and programming that explore the rich topics of architecture and design.Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert is an 8,400 square foot, Silver LEED-certified building named The Galen that presents rotating exhibitions and special collections. It is surrounded by the four-acre Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden featuring important sculpture works. Admission to the Palm Desert location is free to the public, generously underwritten by Helene V. Galen. Palm Springs Art Museum has free admission the second Sunday of each month, it is also has free admission every Thursday evening from 4-8 p.m., thanks to the City of Palm Springs. The A+D Center has extended hours every Thursday evening until 8 p.m., also thanks to the City of Palm Springs.